Statement of OMCT to
the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human
Rights
Item 6.a) of the
Agenda
Women and Human
Rights
Mr. Chairman,
The Violence against Women programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) counts among its objectives the systematic integration (mainstreaming) of gender into international human rights mechanisms. To this end, we have been collaborating for several years with the UN's conventional and non-conventional mechanisms. At the same time, we have been strengthening the capacity of organisations in the field – members of the SOS-Torture Network – to contribute to their work.
OMCT strives to make States accountable for acts of violence perpetrated against women in their families, in the community and at the hand of State officials. This fight consists of the reinforcement of the principle of due diligence in the prevention, the investigation and the punishment of the authors of such acts, but also of the protection and the rehabilitation of victims, both at national and international levels.
Some people argue that violence against women – often considered a private or cultural affair – is an issue that should not implicate State responsibility emanating from human rights commitments. However, thanks to the work of independent UN experts such as the members of treaty bodies, the special procedures’ mandate holders of the Human Rights Commission or the experts of the Sub-Commission, State responsibility in cases of acts of violence against women has been reconsidered. Across the world, this new perspective fuels debates that have led to the adoption of concrete measures aimed at preventing and investigating such acts, sanctioning the authors and protecting the victims.
During this last session of the Sub-Commission, OMCT expresses its gratitude for the work accomplished by this body in the fight against all types of violence towards women. However, it also hopes that the mechanisms and studies established pursuant to its mandate be continued by the Human Rights Council and that due importance be attributed to this. We can mention, for example, the mandate of the Special Rapporteur charged with a detailed study on the difficulty of establishing responsibility or guilt with regard to sexual violence, to the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on traditional practices affecting the health of women and the girl child, to the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, and to the place reserved for non governmental organisations in its work on these issues.
Mr. Chairman,
Despite the progress of the decade following the Beijing Conference, numerous women around the world are still deprived of their right to life or their right to live with dignity.
For example, in
These violations continue and remain unpunished even though most of these countries have not only ratified the principal international and regional human rights instruments, but have also integrated provisions that explicitly prohibit these practises into national law. It is thus suitable to ask what stands in the way of legal action against the authors of such crimes.
We must begin by addressing the human dimension which lies at the heart of these acts and their impunity. We must reach out to individuals, to communities and to the media (which tolerate or support these practises and stigmatise victims in order to dissuade them from filing a complaint), as well as to State officials charged with ensuring respect for the rule of law (police officers, prosecutors, judges, etc.). This is required in order to establish real equality between women and men within families and communities, and in procedural and judiciary practises, without which all legislative measures and plans of action against violence towards women will be meaningless.
In the framework of human rights reviews in particular countries, UN mechanisms must serve as examples by focussing on all discriminatory practices towards women that are tolerated or perpetrated by governmental officials, and by strongly condemning them.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
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